Robben Island Histories, Identities and Futures

Robben Island Histories, identities and futures The past, present and future meaning of place Brett Seymour A paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of B.A. (Hons) in History The University of Sydney 2012 Introduction The inclusion of place as a subject of historical investigation has proven to be as valuable as the traditional orientation towards time. Investigating the past via an orientation to place has uncovered the different ways in which people imbue specific places with meaning and how this meaning and process of meaning-making changes over time. This process of imbuing place with meaning can occur in a number of ways. It can occur experientially, that is, by living in it and interacting with it physically on an individual level. It can also be made socially and culturally, via collective interactions and experiences of place that are shared amongst a group. Place can also be given meaning through cognitive means – place can be imagined and connected with sometimes from afar. Memory is one such means through which this can occur. Memory plays a significant role in associating meaning with place, as remembering a past is crucial for a sense of identity. This past is bound not only in time, but in place. The themes of place, experience, meaning, and memory bring us to modern-day South Africa, where its post-apartheid environment has brought about new values, goals, and visions of society and nation. In breaking with its apartheid past, creating a unified national identity, and promoting a new image of democracy to itself and to the world, South Africa has looked to present a 'collective representation of the past' in order to create a new imagined community in moving forward. 1 This representation has dramatically evolved and has been reshaped to meet the new projects of South Africa's self fashioning. Enter, Robben Island. In the case of this small island in the Table Bay region, two additional types of memory—public memory and national memory—are being created, which threaten to subsume the individual and collective memories and meanings of Robben Island's long list of inhabitants. Robben Island and its meaning have become part of, indeed, the most significant part of, post-apartheid identity building in South Africa and as a result have been reshaped. This reshaping as a consequence of the politicising and commodifying of Robben Island is collapsing its multiple memories and meanings into a single dominant narrative of a new South Africa as a whole. Robben Island has become a symbol of hope and triumph over apartheid, and of the nation's new democratic direction; but 1 Veronique Riouful, 'Behind Telling: Post-Apartheid Representations of Robben Island's Past', Kronos, 26 (August 2000): 22-41, p. 22. 1 this inscribing of meaning is, ironically, obscuring a true democratic telling of its history. This context plays a vital role in investigating the notions of place and meaning on Robben Island, because when investigating memory and meaning associated with place, the multiple agendas, conflicts and negotiations that characterise the process of remembering the past and refashioning national identity all need to be considered. Memory and meaning can be instrumental. The past can be selectively recalled and refashioned as a means to support different aims.2 With this in mind, this paper begins by giving a brief history of Robben Island in order to highlight the varying roles the island has played and the various groups involved. Emphasising the entire history of the island is important, as what this paper will argue is that certain histories, memories, and meanings have been favoured over others. I then move on to discuss the multitude of meanings associated with Robben Island in two parts. The first part pays attention to individual and collective constructions of meaning and memory and their existance as internally and organically created. The second part pays attention to public and national constructions of meaning and memory as they have been externally imposed. As will be seen, these two constructions conflict, with the internal stories being subsumed by the so-called official story of the island. In tracing out the problematic reality of place serving national, political and commercial interests, multiple and conflicting interpretations of history and meaning of a place, and the need to recover lost history and meaning, broad thematic connections will also be made. In the final section I discuss debates concerning Robben Island's future, triggered by the problem of conflicting interpretations of place, and the central issue of whose meaning and history should be preserved. This paper argues that for Robben Island, what is conserved in terms of the official meaning and memory relies on the chosen meaning and identity given to the island by authorities such as the Robben Island Museum. What emerges is that Robben Island's history and the memories and meanings associated with it extend far beyond the current emphasis on post-Apartheid South Africa celebrating its new democracy and a triumph over a dark past. The purpose is to illustrate how Robben Island's use as a symbol for the creation of a public and national meaning and identity threatens to ignore and ultimately lose a multitude of individual and collective meanings and memories. What is happening 2 Steven Hoelscher & Derek H. Alderman, 'Memory and Place: Geographies of a Critical Relationship', Social & Cultural Geography, vol 5, no. 3, (2004): 347-355, p. 349. 2 with Robben Island speaks to the power of one place to become a symbol for issues larger than its own history. I History and identities Robben Island, Dutch for 'seal island' is located at the entrance to Table Bay, seven kilometres west of mainland South Africa, and is itself only a few kilometres long and wide at just over five square kilometres in total area (fig. 1). The flat low-lying landmass that is visible is the top of a now submerged mountain linked to mainland Blouberg to its east. The island's flatness renders it close to invisible from the perspective of the mountainous mainland, which in stark contrast is always visible from the island. This combination of it being just far away enough and just invisible enough (figs. 2 & 3) unfortunately makes Robben Island an ideal destination for undesirables that prefer to be out of sight and out of mind. In 1488, the first known European contact with the island occurred when Portuguese explorers rounded the Cape of Good Hope and set themselves up on the island, taking refuge in the natural shelter and protection of the island's caves, and using its animal and land resources. Robben Island was seen as a safer location than the mainland, inhabited by the native Khoikhoi. From around the turn of the seventeenth century, awareness of the island's importance as a maritime resting place grew and it became an unofficial mail station, playing a significant role in maritime communications. 3 From 1652, the Dutch settled the island, turning it into a refreshment post and sheep farm. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the Island's chief function was now as a place of punishment. Large numbers of prisoners began arriving on the island. 4 In 1795, the British took over the Cape and island after it was abandoned by the Dutch, and continued to use the site as a prison until 1806, when all convicts on the island were relocated in preparation for the beginning of a new British prison settlement. 5 In 1846 a leper asylum, lunatic asylum, and chronic sick hospital were established, and between 1858 and 1910 period, a number of 3 South African History Online, 'Robben Island: A timeline', retrieved on 25 May, 2012, available at: <http://v1.sahistory.org.za/pages/places/villages/westernCape/robben_island/timeline.htm >. 4 Harriet Deacon, The Island. A History of Robben Island 1488-1990, (Bellville, 1996) , pp. 20-21. 5 Deacon, The Island , p. 32. 3 infrastructural and aesthetic improvements and upgrades were made. 6 Between 1921 and 1931, the lunatic asylum and leper hospitals were closed due to calls for the more humane treatment of lepers and the mentally ill and declining incidences.7 From 1931, Robben Island took on a role as World War II military base and coastal defense station. A harbour, airstrip, and gun batteries were built and a system of tunnels and bunkers were carved into the island itself. The island fortress also now became the home for thousands of servicemen and women and became more accessible and less mysterious than ever before.8 However, in 1959, the Minister for Justice announced that Robben Island would be used as a maximum security institution and that most of the ties with the city would once again be cut. 9 Robben Island would once again enter a period of isolation and invisibility in the eyes of the mainland. From the early 1960s, in attempts to suppress opposition to apartheid, political prisoners began to be sent to Robben Island. In 1964 Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, and other ANC leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment on the island. It was not until 1990 that President F. W. de Klerck unbanned the ANC, PAC, and other organisations, and began to release political prisoners, and it was not until another two years later that the last of Robben Island's political prisoners were released into the newly forming democratic South Africa. 10 6 South African History Online, 'Robben Island: A timeline'. Among these improvements: a cemetery was added in 1858, a lighthouse in 1864, a restaurant in 1880, a garden and planting campaign was undertaken in 1882, in 1887 upgrades were completed on the leper houses with a separate female leper block added in 1890.

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